Street Crime vs. White Collar Crime
White Collar VS Street
September 7, 2008 at 5:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged white collar crime
As this week is my turn to do the blog presentation in class, I have decided to do my blog entry on my presentation topic! Obviously crime, but to be more specific, white collar crime. The term “white collar crime” was coined by Edwin Sutherland, and was his means of explaining crimes that were committed not because of factors like poverty and unemployment, but instead committed because of reasons that disrupts social organisation. Examples of such crimes include embezzlement, price fixing or collusion, and false advertising, among many others.
The difference between white collar crime and normal street crime is the people that commit them. In white collar crime, the criminals are those of a high and usually politically respected position. However, street crimes are committed by those of a low level in education, often in poverty and unemployed. Also, the monetary difference in both these types of crime are extreme. Eitzen (1986;426) states that in 1980, the Amrican business community lost $50 billion to white collar crime, as compared to $5 billion in all types of street crimes. This shows that white collar crime is indeed extremely costly to businesses involved in both the government and private sector.
However, the question that I want to ask is that, if white collar crime is so costly as compared to street crimes like petty theft, robbery, murder, and car jacking among others, why is it not being as severly handled? Everyday we hear of street criminals being punished for their deeds, but it is only rarely in Singaporean newspapers that we come across white collar criminals serving a heavy sentence. So why the great inequality between the meting out of punishment to those who commit white collar crime versus those who commit street crime?
I believe one reason is that white collar criminals are those that are extremely rich and therefore have the
September 7, 2008 at 5:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged white collar crime
As this week is my turn to do the blog presentation in class, I have decided to do my blog entry on my presentation topic! Obviously crime, but to be more specific, white collar crime. The term “white collar crime” was coined by Edwin Sutherland, and was his means of explaining crimes that were committed not because of factors like poverty and unemployment, but instead committed because of reasons that disrupts social organisation. Examples of such crimes include embezzlement, price fixing or collusion, and false advertising, among many others.
The difference between white collar crime and normal street crime is the people that commit them. In white collar crime, the criminals are those of a high and usually politically respected position. However, street crimes are committed by those of a low level in education, often in poverty and unemployed. Also, the monetary difference in both these types of crime are extreme. Eitzen (1986;426) states that in 1980, the Amrican business community lost $50 billion to white collar crime, as compared to $5 billion in all types of street crimes. This shows that white collar crime is indeed extremely costly to businesses involved in both the government and private sector.
However, the question that I want to ask is that, if white collar crime is so costly as compared to street crimes like petty theft, robbery, murder, and car jacking among others, why is it not being as severly handled? Everyday we hear of street criminals being punished for their deeds, but it is only rarely in Singaporean newspapers that we come across white collar criminals serving a heavy sentence. So why the great inequality between the meting out of punishment to those who commit white collar crime versus those who commit street crime?
I believe one reason is that white collar criminals are those that are extremely rich and therefore have the